Hello everyone. I am currently in the process of creating my very own Pokemon rom hack. This ROM hack will include various changes including map and story edits, some Pokemon evolution changes, some changes to Pokemon attributes the ability to catch all 493 Pokemon (because I'm hacking Platinum), some new items and various other miscellaneous tweaks. All changes will be documented in this thread.
If anyone is interested in helping me with Alpha/Beta testing, please shoot me a PM.
The project currently does not have a title and is in stage Alpha 0.2.2.
changes for Alpha 0.2.1
Increased text speed.
Lower case Pokemon names.
Starters have been changed to Magby, Spheal, and Hoppip
All moves have been updated to the Gen 6 stats (move power, physical/special, accuracy)(this does not include the Fairy Type being added)
evolution changes
Vapereon will now evolve into Suicune when levelled up with a Ho-Oh in the party.
Flareon will now evolve into Entei when levelled up with a Ho-Oh in the party.
Jolteon will now evolve into Raikou when levelled up with a Ho-Oh in the party.
Phione will now evolve into Manaphy when exposed to a Water Stone.
Machoke will now evolve into Machamp at level 36.
Kadabra will now evolve into Alakazam at level 36.
Graveler will now evolve into Golem at level 36.
Haunter will now evolve into Gengar at level 36.
Kirlia will now evolve solely based on gender at level 30 (Gardevoir if female; Gallade if male). The Dawn Stone is no longer required.
Wurmple will continue to evolve at its normal level (7) but will now only evolve into Silcoon during the day and only into Cascoon during the night.
Nincada will now evolve into Shedinja when exposed to a Fire Stone.
Eevee will now evolve into Espeon using the Dawn Stone.
Eevee will now evolve into Umbreon using the Dusk Stone.
Scyther will evolve into Scizor by levelling up with a Metal Coat.
Onyx will now evolve into Steelix by levelling up with a Metal Coat.
Porygon will now evolve into Porygon2 when levelled up with an Up-Grade.
Porygon2 will now evolve into Porygon-Z when levelled up with a Dubious Disc.
Because I am Dark as fuck, Cubone will continue to evolve at level 28 but will now only evolve into Marowak if male. If female, Cubone will evolve into Kangaskahn at level 28.
changes for Alpha 0.2.2
All changes present in Alpha 0.2.1 are present in this update.
Pokemon Ability Changes
The Bulbasaur line now gets Chlorophyll as a Second Ability
The Charmander line now gets Drought as a Second Ability
The Squirtle line now gets Drizzle as a Second Ability.
The Feebas line now gets Cute Charm as a Second Ability.
The Torchic line now gets Speed Boost as a Second Ability.
Evolution Changes
Golbat now evolves into Crobat at level 40
Poliwhirl now evolves into Politoed when leveled up with King's Rock.
FIXED A mistake led to Kadabra evolving into Alakazam at level 16. It now evolves at level 36.
FIXED A mistake led to Machoke evolving into Machamp at level 28. It now evolves at level 36.
Ponyta now evolves into Rapidash at level 30 as opposed to 40.
Slowpoke now evolves into Slowking when leveled up with King's Rock.
FIXED A mistake led to Onix not having the altered evolution method. It now evolves when leveled up with a Metal Coat.
FIXED A mistake led to Cubone's evolution not being totally gender-defined meaning it could have evolved randomly into Kangaskhan or Marowak if female. It now evolves into Kangaskahn at level 28 if female and into Marowak at level 28 if male.
Dusclops now evolves into Dusknoir when leveled up with a Reaper Cloth.
Snorunt now evolves into Glalie at 42 if Male and into Froslass at level 42 if female.
Clamperl now evolves into Huntail when leveled up with a DeepSeaTooth and into Gorebyss when leveled up with a DeepSeaScale
Feebas now evolves into Milotic at level 20
Budew now evolves into Roselia at level 10
Riolu now evolves into Lucario at level 16.
Larvitar now evolves into Pupitar at level 16.
Pupitar now evolves into Tyranitar at level 36.
Other Tweaks
Nidorina and Nidoqueen are now in the Monster and Field egg groups. This needs testing.
Raikou Entei and Suicune are now in the Field egg group. This needs testing.
Celebi now has a gender ratio of 99% female/1% male. This needs testing.
Unown is now in the Amorphous egg group. This needs testing.
Combee's gender ratio has been altered to 10% male 90% female making evolution into Vespiquen easier. This needs testing.
Azurill's gender ratio has been altered to 50/50. Azurill will now longer change genders upon evolving. This needs testing.
TO APPLY THE PATCHES YOU WILL NEED A ROM OF THE USA VERSION OF POKEMON PLATINUM, THE UNIVERSAL POKEMON GAME RANDOMIZER, AND NITRO EXPLORER 3
how to apply patches
Patches for Alpha 0.2.2 (https://mega.nz/#!RaZWnSIA)
Decryption Key.
!pRpBA-8beo7ZGLkGNoDJ7dk8udj7B4HlOwAKjuSiHgg
This step is only necessary for the first time that you are patching the ROM. Skip to the second paragraph if this is not your first time.
To apply the following patches you will need the Universal Pokemon Game Randomizer. Search that exactly into google and it will be the first link. Open up the randomizer and then click Produce Seed and open the Presets file I gave you. It should be a different file extension than any of the other items in the archive. Open up the ROM and apply the settings. Now you need to save it.
Next you are going to want to open Nitro Explorer 3 (If you don't have it, search on Google. It will be the first link). Open your ROM that you just saved through the Randomizer.
Expand the poketool folder
Expand the personal folder
Replace the .narc files with the ones with the corresponding name in the archive. (Example: Replace the evo.narc in the rom with the evo.narc in the archive. )
You should only have to replace 3 .narc files.
You are done. Close the program.
First of all if you're making a pokemon Rom fix the balance issues that exist in the main games plssss
Second of all sure I'm in for testing
This will only include the Pokemon, types, items, moves and abilities that exist in Generation 4. I will attempt to fix the balance issues that existed back then. However the only ones I can think of off the top of my head is Sableye and Spiritomb not having a weakness.
Second.
Awesome. While this project is in stage Alpha no map or story edits will be made. Almost all edits will be on the Pokemon. I'm not sure about everything I'll need yet it terms of testing but I'll let you know.
Quote from: BoywithoutaFairy on August 29, 2017, 07:58:26 PMevolution changes
Vapereon will now evolve into Suicune when levelled up with a Ho-Oh in the party.
Flareon will now evolve into Entei when levelled up with a Ho-Oh in the party.
Jolteon will now evolve into Raikou when levelled up with a Ho-Oh in the party.
Phione will now evolve into Manaphy when exposed to a Water Stone.
Machoke will now evolve into Machamp at level 36.
Kadabra will now evolve into Alakazam at level 36.
Graveler will now evolve into Golem at level 36.
Haunter will now evolve into Gengar at level 36.
Kirlia will now evolve solely based on gender at level 30 (Gardevoir if female; Gallade if male). The Dawn Stone is no longer required.
Wurmple will continue to evolve at its normal level (7) but will now only evolve into Silcoon during the day and only into Cascoon during the night.
Nincada will now evolve into Shedinja when exposed to a Fire Stone.
Eevee will now evolve into Espeon using the Dawn Stone.
Eevee will now evolve into Umbreon using the Dusk Stone.
(I may be making a possibility of Mew evolving into Mewtwo but I'm not sure yet. It may have to wait until a future update.)
Scyther will evolve into Scizor by levelling up with a Metal Coat.
Onyx will now evolve into Steelix by levelling up with a Metal Coat.
Porygon will now evolve into Porygon2 when levelled up with an Up-Grade.
Porygon2 will now evolve into Porygon-Z when levelled up with a Dubious Disc.
Because I am Dark as fuck, Cubone will continue to evolve at level 28 but will now only evolve into Marowak if male. If female, Cubone will evolve into Kangaskahn at level 28.
These are all the evolution changes that will be present in Alpha 0.2.
Those are some damn cool evolution edits you've got there, son. The only one I have a big deal with is Nincada to Shedinja; I've always loved the concept of an empty space in your party suddenly being filled with Nincada's shedded skin. It's your hack so do as you please, but if you want to make a direct evolution from Nincada to Shedinja, I'd rethink using a Fire Stone; that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I wish I had a better idea but I don't. Neat stuff, though.
Suggestion: replace all the music with high quality rips
Oh, and I can help with the testing, too
Good luck!
I would like to replace the music but I haven't found a tool to do that yet.
Can't you just replace the sound files? It might take some time to find them in the Rom, but they should be there. I used to change league music all the time
Possibly. I'm using Nitro Explorer 3 so it shouldn't be too hard to find them
bump. I have released the patch files for Alpha 0.2
Expand the spoiler tag to find the link
First of all, that isn't a bump. Second of all, I'm trying this out asap.
Ok. As far as I know the action replay cheats for Pokemon Platinum should still work for this hack. Feel free to test any of the new evolution methods.
@Dudeman My idea was the Fire Stone burning away the Nincada and the Ghost is the only thing that's left. I may change this later.
Also I am keeping that evolution method for some other Pokemon. More on that later.
Wow that's dark
Quote from: NocturneOfShadow on August 30, 2017, 07:20:02 AMCan't you just replace the sound files? It might take some time to find them in the Rom, but they should be there. I used to change league music all the time
The problem is to convert the files, you need midi, samples, link them, convert them, and you even need to do hex editing if you want it to loop iirc.
I tryed to do it once, but I didn't succeed....
Oh yeah looping is something that I didn't do
Apparently the links didn't work so I provided one with a decryption key
Update. I have now released Alpha version 0.2.2
As soon as I have computer access I'll be testing this for sure
After performing a test I have confirmed that any encounter with Celebi will cause the game to freeze. This is likely due to the added gender ratio. I will remove it.
Why does Cubone have the ability to evolve into Kangaskhan in this hack? I don't get the flavour logic behind this.
Oh, you don't know the fan theory? I thought it was fairly well-known. There's a theory that a Cubone without the skull is a baby Kangaskhan, based on the lore behind it and their very similar physiologies. In other words, if Cubone evolved without its mother's skull on its head, it would become a Kangaskhan. There are some problems with this since Kangaskhan is always female, but it's a lovely morbid fan theory and I like it.
Dudeman hit the nail right on the head
I'm not sure I like the idea of changing the starters- maybe just increase the selection to roughly 12 or so?
some of us like our piplups
Have 12 options and they're all Piplups.
I understand your concern. I cannot increase the number of starter choices but I plan to make them available later in game
so I'm trying to install everything I need to but it's all very confusing and I can't open the rom I installed because it's a 7zip file and not a .nds file (is that even a real thing?)
could you give a link to the ROM you use
A 7z file is an archive file. You need to unzip the archive file. The .nds file will be inside it.
Also no. I am not allowed to provide a rom link.
Quote from: Dudeman on September 02, 2017, 01:44:00 PMOh, you don't know the fan theory? I thought it was fairly well-known. There's a theory that a Cubone without the skull is a baby Kangaskhan, based on the lore behind it and their very similar physiologies. In other words, if Cubone evolved without its mother's skull on its head, it would become a Kangaskhan. There are some problems with this since Kangaskhan is always female, but it's a lovely morbid fan theory and I like it.
I've never heard of that fan theory, and it still doesn't make sense to me. We've seen plenty of baby Kangaskhans (including in the official art and the Mega art), and the skulls don't look like matches for blocky Cubone or even smoother Marowak.
I finally got this figured out, but I don't know where I'm supposed to put the .narc files. I can't find any folder named poketool. It looks like the changes were made, though, so... will anything terrible happen?
EDIT: I'm noticing black spots on the overworld
EDIT: The sprites for the starter pokemon haven't been changed even though the names have, when selecting your starter. AND your partner still has one of the original starters. For continuity's sake you may want to change that :P
I didn't see anything else out of the ordinary for the beginning part, though you may want to edit spheal's moveslot, as powder snow made the rival battle trivial
Professor Rowan says your pokemon has evolved already when you speak to him
you know I think the weird black spots are caused by the game having too much information on the overworld- inside areas don't have the spots
so I think to help balance the game the first thing you can do is remove one or two types (I recommend rock/dark, obviously), so that the total number of types in the game is 15 or 16, both of which are round numbers that people would like.
Ice should be super effective against water.
Normal could be super effective against psychic for balance reasons, though it's not really there flavorfully.
One of the main complaints about 4th gen is the lack of early fire types, and I think you could add a bit of variety to the early pokemon in general if you think it's a good idea.
@removing types
N O
what do you have against tyranitar
it should/could be dragon type
Don't remove types, they were introduced for a reason and there's no problem with them. Dark is super effective against Psychic for balance reasons. That's why it was introduced.
Dunno how I feel about Ice being super effective against Water, but it's an interesting idea.
There are 17 types in the game, one ought to go at least. I realize dark helps against psychic, but you can balance beyond that or remove rock type
Sheesh
tbh i prefer the number 17 over 15 and 16
You would.
Ok so I haven't actually been keeping up with the development of this project, but looking through the posts a few things kinda bother me. For the record, my ROM-hacking experience only really includes Super Mario World and a bit of Gen 3 Pokemon, so feel free to take anything I say with a grain of salt.
Question 1: What is the purpose of this ROM-hack?
So apparently you'll be making "edits to the map and story", but what does that entail? Is it going to be a massive overhaul with a new plot and characters, or just a basic edit of things to make them more convenient? Please consider your target audience when deciding between these choices, because the latter option has a considerably smaller range. I completely understand if this is a test-run before something larger.
Question 2: Who is your target audience?
Ok yeah probably should've asked this first. If it's just for NSM I really don't know what to say but if you're releasing it elsewhere then please make sure there's enough unique to your hack to be marketable (even though you don't really "advertise" these things, it's still important). Your target audience is also important in deciding how many of the fundamental elements of Pokemon you should change. If you are going to make heavy edits, it would be nice to inform people who don't know.
Question 3: Is your story already planned out?
If so it would be good to let a few of us assess it. It would also give me peace of mind to know that you aren't just making edits to Pokemon without having everything else ready in your mind or written down somewhere (which is the better option really).
Question 4: Have you managed everything you need for this hack?
Say if you need new textures (which is good for one with a new plot), are you able to make them yourself? Do you need to ask someone? Is someone available to do so? I believe I can trust you with music, but if there's any other assets you need make sure you can get them. This one is generally more lenient than the other three.
Quote from: BoywithoutaFairy on August 29, 2017, 08:06:25 PMWhile this project is in stage Alpha no map or story edits will be made. Almost all edits will be on the Pokemon. I'm not sure about everything I'll need yet it terms of testing but I'll let you know.
What this quote tells me is that you have time to consider all of these things, if you haven't considered them already. I'm very interested in your response.
I assume the purpose is to remove the perceived flaws from gen 4, which would probably make it the best gen in the series. If that is the case, maybe have health bars drop faster :P
He could Also just be doing this for fun, I know I'm having fun testing
First off, I'm really glad people have managed to get the hack working. That was something I was worried about.
@Waluigi
I do have a (almost) completed story in mind. Give me a little time and I'll release the info. The game will not be taking place in Sinnoh. However, due to the nature of the tools I am using, I very likely will not be able to completely alter the region layout though town and route layouts will all be changed. This hack will have a bunch of new characters.
My target audience is to anyone who may be a bit bored of the general formula that the Pokemon games have had from Gen 2-6. Until the hack reaches beta 1.5.0 (at which point all map and story edits will be complete) I will only be releasing the hack here. If you're looking for a general age demographic then I'd say 16+. (Though a younger person would still be able to play the game without problems).
As of right now I believe I have all the tools necessary for making this hack. (Except an abundance of time.)
@Noc
Ignore anything NPCs say as of right now. They will all be replaced anyways.
The black spots may be due to problems with your emulator. I have yet to experience this and I have yet to see anyone else mention them. Try a different emulator and see if the problem persists.
I do not have the ability to add or remove types other than to go to each individual move/Pokemon and change it.
I do not have the ability to alter type effectiveness.
If I had either of these abilities the only thing I would do is add the Fairy type.
Also don't worry about having access to Pokemon. Starting with Beta 1.5.0 I will begin altering what Pokemon can appear in each area. Remember one of my goals is to be able to obtain every Pokemon from Bulbasaur to Arceus.
Then I would strongly recommend stripping dark type away from everything and replacing it, since it gets rid of the ghost/dark issue as well
I couldn't figure out how to replace the .narc files, is that possibly what's causing the spots?
Ok cool. Can't wait to see the concepts.
Quote from: BoywithoutaFairy on September 08, 2017, 03:57:09 PMThe game will not be taking place in Sinnoh.
If it's not taking place in a region we've seen so far, just remember that typically "new region = new Pokemon", although really that falls into a whole new category of difficult. If you're not confident in your ability to make new Pokemon then it's probably better to just stick with what's there. New pokemon could solve or cause balance issues, so unless you care enough (which really you shouldn't unless you have that all planned out and think you're capable of it) just don't bother. It might help some people to only see familiar Pokemon anyway.
Hacking RPGs takes a
lot of planning so don't be to surprised to see me constantly asking if you have various things prepared. I believe you have everything under control, but I'll ask regardless.
@Noc
I will not be stripping the dark type from the game. The Ghost/Dark Pokemon however will have a counterbalance (I'm thinking either a new ability or a new item.) If worse comes to worst I'll make spiritomb pure ghost and sableye pure dark but I really don't want to do that.
If you couldn't replace the .narc files then you only got the settings changed in the randomizer which isn't much. You don't have the full hack.
If you couldn't find the poketool folder odds are that you don't have the correct base rom. Make sure it's the USA version of Platinum. If it is look again.
could you post screenshots of the path
I could but it will have to wait until I have access to a computer again which won't be until Monday.
So I'm testing it on my 3ds at the moment. (https://www.ninsheetmusic.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fsfiles.org%2Fflightsimshotsv2%2Fimages%2F2017%2F09%2F10%2Fimage.jpg&hash=ec0625ce065b08d3d92698d8332714ad8cba2047)
Everything is working fine for now, no black spots or anything like that.
What flashcart are you using?
An old DSTT, wich doesn't work on the 3ds whitout cfw
Ok. I've been using R4i Gold Pro 3ds which obviously works on the 3ds without cfw. Unfortunately it can't play 3ds rooms.
So I've been thinking about it and I don't really like the idea of posting the entire story on here before releasing the hack with the story in it. I intend to make this hack very plot heavy in comparison to other Pokemon games. That said I'd still like to bounce some ideas off of you guys. How would you guys feel about a nonsilent protagonist?
it's probably fine